This week’s Jefferson Award winner is a local artist who has always been inspired by the possibilities in creating art. But when Kristie Fairchild brought that same vision to her work with the homeless, she helped hundreds of people realize their own possibilities.

Some students are getting better grades. Others are the first in their family to go to college. One in ten students in Sonoma Valley said their future is brighter, because they have someone encouraging them along the way: this week’s Jefferson Award winner.